Poison [d'Artois]

[Lancaster]

It had been a few weeks since the storms.

Something had been off. It slowly got worse, but Elliot, being Elliot, tried to hide it. Tried to ignore it. He assumed nothing could be wrong, because, well—he was a vampire. What could possibly be wrong? Every now and again, however, he felt like he had a fever; his cold skin heated up, but he didn’t tell anyone. Why? Because he enjoyed it. It made him feel more human. He revelled in the sickness because he couldn’t get sick anymore, could he?

Maybe Pi had noticed. Maybe. The night before, he’d had trouble swallowing. When he’d retracted his fangs from her neck, the blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth. He’d walked away without explanation—had ended up spitting the blood from his mouth because he couldn’t physically swallow it.

And, the last couple of nights, forget playing the guitar. Forget the piano. ****, forget singing, even. Something was wrong. Something was terribly, awfully wrong, and Elliot knew he should tell someone. He should do something about it. But what? No. Instead, he ignored it. He want to work, even if every tiny thing seemed to irritate him. The money didn’t balance, and he was almost certain he made Jessica cry. Jessica didn’t deserve it. It wasn’t her fault.

But his body didn’t feel like his own. It spasmed and kicked at odd moments. He swore to hide the odd tics. In the office, he could hear the pub outside, the revellers and the clink of glass, the clack of the balls on the pool table. There was a live band on the stage—was it Skylar’s? He couldn’t remember. His brain was all over the place, and he couldn’t… he should apologise to Jessica, is what he should do.

Long limbs unfolded from the chair as he stood and made his way out behind the bar. The lighting was dim, and no one paid him any attention. His head itched—why was it itching? He couldn’t remember the wound, where the rusting street sign had whacked him over the head. It had healed within hours, but he hadn’t noticed the infection beneath the skin. The poison that had taken hold. Oh, his blood had tried to fight it, of course. It was vampiric blood, that believed itself superior to any kind of human illness. But, in the end, that vampiric blood had failed. Entirely, and completely.

The last thing Elliot saw was Jessica’s startled face. She hadn’t been crying. Her eyes were clear. Of course, yes, she was stronger than that. Within a month she’d be gone, moved on to some other country and some other job. This one didn’t mean anything to her.

A shout passed Elliot lips as his entire body locked; his shoulders were thrown back and his chest thrust forward. His fingers clawed into mangled fists, his ankles lifting from the floor. The veins in his neck stood stark against his skin, while his teeth ground together.

He had no idea what was happening, as his eyes rolled back into his head, and finally he went down. In a shower of glass and vodka (he brought a tray of ready-to-go drinks down with him) his body hit the ground, shoulder and hip first. But, without Elliot’s bidding, his body was thrown onto its back. Spasms wracked his long limbs. He clawed at the ground, glass ravaging his skin. He couldn’t stop it. He couldn’t control his own body. There were shouts around him, gasps of surprise. Someone even laughed. Elliot’s voice was trapped in his own throat. He wanted to shout, to tear his own voice box out if it would make the pain subside—it felt as if all his muscles were trying to tear themselves apart, as if his spine were trying to break itself. ****, he wanted to scream, but he couldn’t. Just a lame duck, unable to help himself and at the mercy of those around him.

[CharlotteC]

Charlie was spending another night in Lancaster's, she had just got off work and had headed down into the pub for some fun and games in the way of sharking some of the humans out of their money. When she had first entered, there was a band setting up, getting ready to play. She was soon though concentrating on a game, bent over the green felt, reaching for a shot that normally would be difficult for her had she not been a vampire, but she pretended to strain just to play it up.

A shout called her attention just as the cue stick met the cue, sending it spinning into a ball that had teetered on the edge of one of the pockets. After the shout though, she couldn't care about the game, all she saw was where the shout came from and there stood Elliot, her mentor and sire for all intents and purposes. His lean body rigid and not in the good way. Then he was falling and Charlie's mind just barely registered that she was in a public place. She wasn't as fast as some vampires but she was sure she could have stopped him from hitting the ground, instead she moved at her old human pace but still leaped graceful and cat like over the bar to get to Elliot as he now lay before her. She kneeled down beside him, one hand resting on his chest, the other coming up to pressing the back of her hand against his forehead. The heat she felt there was shocking, not just because as vampires their flesh was cold to the touch not hot, but because just how hot he felt. It reminded her of the night that she had turned her little one. She turned her hand over on his forehead for a moment, using it as a compress as she glanced around. The socked faces were calling more attention than she knew Elliot would be good with.

"Hang on El..." She said quietly as she shifted around and began to drag him back into the office. At least there she could call Pi for help while hiding him from the pub. She probably could have got him upstairs or taken him to the fadeportal but she wanted Pi's thoughts first. It was quite terrifying to see this strong man before her, having some sort of fit. When she finally got him into the office and closed the door behind them, she eased him back down and rested his head in her lap while keeping her hand on his head to keep him cool.

It took her a moment to calm, then when she did, with a deep cleansing breath, she called mentally first to Pi who, she hadn't noticed there, ~Pi! Quick! Something is wrong with Elliot!! We're in the office in the pub.~ As she waited for a response she connected her mind to the Internet, not only was she checking a list of Elliot's symptoms but she was making sure that nothing about what was happening made it to the net as well. When it came to computers and hacking, her Kung fu was strong. Yet when it came to family being sick she had to keep reminding herself that her freaking out would not help Elliot.

She switched her hands so that the cool one was against his head while the one that had previously been there could cool down again.

[Aliyah]

For the millionth time since Pi had given her the Tome to the Den, Aliyah stood before the portal that would take her to Lancaster's. It had worked multiple times in the past, and she was beginning to think she had a legitimate fear of the thing. After so many successful uses, there was no reason for her anxiety to spike every time she went to do so again. Her knowledge of psychology was pretty extensive, and if she didn't know any better, it was fair to say that she had a phobia of the magical teleportation device. It was perhaps the oddest phobia, and there was no doubt that it had no scientific name. Seeing as it had no real basis in reality.

It took an unnecessary breath before she found the courage to jump through, her eyes closed tightly. A moment later, she was stumbling across the office floor of Lancasters, only to trip over something very solid. She landed face first against the linoleum floor. She groaned with a small whimper, rubbing at her forehead. "How does this even happen..?" she mumbled to herself, heaving herself up. She turned over in order to get a good glance at what she had tripped over, only to see Elliot's body.

Her blue eyes widened as she let out a short scream, a hand flying up to cover her mouth. "Elliot?!" she squeaked, crawling over to his side. She placed a hand against his forehead, scanning his frame for any visible injuries. For being a vampire, he was burning up. That fact alone set off alarm bells in her head, and she looked around frantically for her cellphone.

It was only then that she noticed the woman in the office with them, and she blinked, trying to recall if she had ever met this woman. She scrambled up from floor, gesturing to Eliot on the gorund, "What happened?!" she asked, hoping that she would know something about the state of Elliot that she had literally stumbled over. "He has a fever, and that doesn't make sense! Vampires don't get fevers!" Her tone was frantic, and hardly helping the situation, but she couldn't hold it back.

"Has anyone contacted Pi?"

[Lancaster]

Elliot was vaguely aware of gentle hands dragging him across the floor. He was vaguely aware of wanting to brush them away, not because he didn’t appreciate the help but because he was terrified of what was happening to him and just wanted it to stop. He wanted to be able to grab a hold of something and stand, brush it off as if it had never happened. But his fingers were curled into claws and his jaw was locked so that he couldn’t speak. His eyes rolled back into his head, and though he was aware of a sudden hush, and then of two distinct voices, he couldn’t pay proper attention to who he was with or what was being said.

Although his back was no longer arched, and although the convulsions weren’t quite as severe, he still could not move. It was as if all his muscles had locked; as if the disease, whatever it was, had finally reached some crucial part of his body and been flung to the tips of every limb. Perhaps still in the midst of a fit, Elliot could only manage a gurgling sound—he tried to open his jaw to speak—not even knowing what to say—but of course he couldn’t.

When Elliot was awake and alert he knew what was what. He could differentiate between his emotions, and the emotions of others. Like listening to voices, he could tell them apart by their specific timbre or accent. It was the same with emotions. Now, however, his wits were scrambled and the emotion that flooded the room didn’t help him. Panic and fear curled around his heart. Was that Aliyah? Was she shrieking? He wanted to be able to reach out and grab a hold of her arm to tell her to calm the **** down, but every attempt at movement caused a fresh wave of pain and nausea, the fever raging and the heat searing over his skin.

This was not normal. Even as a human, Elliot had never experienced anything quite like this. And all he could do was lay there and take it.

[CharlotteC]

Charlie continued to rest her hand on Elliot's head while the other one soothed back his hair a little, still a bit shocked at the fact that he had a fever, his skin and hair even felt a little clammy to her. Or perhaps it was her imagination. She really couldn't tell, but as she looked at the man she thought of as her sire laying there prone as he was right now, she could only think to call again for Pi ~Pi! Please answer me, at least!~ she silently pleaded. Then all of a sudden a blonde appeared, she recognized her as someone new to the family, probably that Aliyah chick... She stumbled over Elliot's body and landed on her face - ow! - if she hadn't had Elliot's head in her lap, she would have move to help the girl to her feet. Thankfully though, she didn't need help, she got to her feet - and then proceeded to freak out.

****! Under other circumstances she might have thought the girl freaking like she was mildly amusing, but as the girl felt Elliot's head - effectively forcing Charlie's hands from his face for a moment - she continued to chirp about things. Charlie took a deep, cleansing breath and then spoke. "Please, calm down... Freaking out won't help him any." She started in a soothing and calm voice, her tone just a little on the commanding side but still friendly. "And to answer your question, yes, I have tried to contact Pi, but I'm a little worried, she hasn't responded yet to my messages." She kept her tone as calm and polite as possible, both of them freaking out wouldn't help Elliot any.

As he began to calm down, Charlie looked at him, again gently soothing his hair away from his face. "Elliot, can you hear me? Can you mindspeak with me?" She asked in her soothing tone, her eyes traveling over his form, trying to see if she could find the source of his ailment. She looked to the girl again and sighed, "I'm sorry by the way, I'm Charlie..." She added, forgetting to introduce herself to the girl.

[Aliyah]

Aliyah knew that she should calm down, and when the other woman reminded her of it, she took a deep and unnecessary breath. Her eyes closed as she fought off the anxiety that gripped at her, as it always did. After a few moments, her eyes reopened and she nodded her head at the woman that was helping to take care of Elliot. She sat back on her heels and frowned down at the male on the floor. Vampires didn't get sick, it just didn't make sense! Somehow, Elliot had managed to succomb to some illness that was strong enough to take out a predatory creature of the night.

And from what the woman said, Pi hadn't answered any attempts at contact. That was unlike her. She was usually so quick to reply with messages and phone calls, and so a sense of worry for the woman began in the back of her head. That would just be their luck, to have both of their bloodline leaders out for the count. Her gaze lifted to the woman in front of her, who had introduced herself as 'Charlie.' The blonde nodded her head and tried to manage a small smile, "I'm sorry we had to meet this way, but hello, Charlie. I'm Aliyah." And she was sorry. This was hardly the best place for a introduction.

Her teeth, fangs included, grazed over her lips as she tried her best to think of other options they might have. Pi was not reachable, and that left them alone, unless they could think of someone else. After a few silent moments on her part, she froze and looked to Charlie with wide eyes, "Wait...isn't one of Pi's childer a doctor, or something?" she asked. She was sure that she had heard the woman correctly, and that someone was a doctor that owned some form of lab. Not that she could remember names to save her life, or if Pi had ever offered one.

It was also possible she was just losing her mind, and that had never been a thing. So, she looked to Charlie in hopes that the woman would know the truth of the matter. One of them had to think of something, and think of it fast. Lucky for them...the hospital was a big no-no.

[Pi dArtois]

“Non, sorry, the construction is not… will not be public, it must be.. unique” The motion Pi made with her hand was one of finality, a chopping of her wrist to end the statement with a body expressed full stop to clearly indicate to the damn man that in no way was this ‘construction’ effort to be one that would go on any ‘books’. Not the basement and if she had to slaughter his crew afterwards, she would. (okay, that was probably being overly dramatic … almost. Probably)

The Training Room, the intention behind it had always been one to house new vampires. The fact it hadn’t ever fulfilled the promise that it had been created with was something that had been eating at Pi for months now. With Lancaster’s hardly needing her there she had wondered what she would do with her time. She had reviewed her past and while she could not go back to being the Under Secretary she could pick up the dangling threads of intention and knit them back into the expectation she had envisioned for the place from its very beginnings.

She was going to turn it into the Sanctuary for vampires, new and ol,d that it was always intended to be. There were legalities to consider and it was those that had her bringing her ringing phone to her ear, the voice on the other end sounding harassed and clipped, legalese slipping off the female tongue faster than jack rabbit. She rattled on about consents and building associations, the red tape to ensure that same business association could ‘choose’ tenants and that in that choosing (such an American Construct she stole from an NYC based movie she’d watched) would be used to keep humans out. Hopefully. Apparently Canadian Law wasn’t as lenient to selective housing associations as their American counterpart.

“No, I don’t want excuses. I need to know what we need to do to make it happen.” Pi spoke, her voice just as clipped and just as focused. Her hand moving now in another negative motion as the site foreman attempted to shove a engineering plan in front of her, his own digit pointing stridently at some vague point that was apparently meant to indicate the location of town water pipes that needed to be redirected to make it work.

Pulling the phone away from her ear she hissed at him “Just MOVE them… get your resource consents and redirect the water away and then make up something the council will swallow so they don’t come around asking questions you can’t answer!”

Slamming the phone back to her ear she shook her head. “Surely there is a legal loop hole. If there is one, I trust you to find it… twist it and make it work for us.”

It wasn’t that Pi ignored the message from Charlotte, in fact, her heart hitched a second beat, her throat constricted until she wasn’t sure she hadn’t swallowed her own tongue at those words but around her chaos was building, site foremen, architects and one project manager and an additional lawyer on the phone in her ear meant it took her a good five minutes to hang up on the one, satisfied she’d managed to calm that ones panic attack sufficiently to get off the phone.

It took longer to assure the three men, all of them twitching as she stood in front of the plans one more time, her answers sharp enough to cut, her glare blistering them with her annoyance and the other part of her wanting to show fang, end the meeting immediately and get the hell out.

“We are done. Get out. Tomorrow night I want all of you to have something more to add when we meet again.”

She didn’t wait for them to say goodbye. She had so little give a **** left in her that she strode down the low ceiling tunnel she was in and crab climbed her way out through the shaft they’d used to get down there.

Charlie’s second message reached her and this time, god, this time she answered. “Je suis desolate…I couldn’t get away.. Not right away. I’m.. I’ll be there soon. Very soon.”

And she was. There were many times in her recent life as a vampire she had come to appreciate the portals for what they represented to her and the family. This single room that connected the corners of this city into one efficient location. She used it now. Port to the rituals table, a couple steps then port directly into … another **** storm. An emotional **** storm Pi had to take precious seconds to process.

And couldn’t.

There are moments when efficiency of mind and spirit allows a person to push through when things are tough. She always thought it was something akin to emotional resilience. You do what you need to do at the time you need to do it. You suck your **** up, pull on your big girl undies and you sort your world out before you indulge in hysterics. Pi, in her rather controlled and logical way, had always been that person. The one to collect her ****, pull up her socks and get the job done. Panic and stunned mullet inaction wasn’t her usual modus but tonight would prove the exception.

They say you can’t know how you would react to someone you love being hurt and injured until you are faced with it, until it is right in front of you and you can’t escape what is right there and having Elliot lying flat out on the floor, looking as still as death made her heart leap into her throat, cutting off sound, breath, life and then the feeling plummeted into her stomach, a roller coaster careening out of control, a death defying leap from a tall building to smash into the ground below, sucking her hope with it.

Pi had lost the ability to think, or speak or do. She dropped to her knees beside him, pulling him out of Charlie’s lap, his body awkwardly hauled as far onto her as she could get him, half his long lanky body, from him to shoulder cushioned over her, nothing but her strength holding him close.

“Elliot.” She spoke, her lips moving against skin so hot they scorched her cool skin. Elliot! “Elliot plaire . Réveillez-vous. Dites-moi ce que nous pouvons faire pour vous aider . Se il vous plaît . Réveiller maintenant .”

Looking up she stared blankly at the two women then back down again, her brain failing, on all levels to fire much beyond her own panic. Her voice low as she whispering against his skin.

[Lancaster]

The emotions swelled and ebbed liked an indecisive tide; the way panic usually felt in a situation where nothing and everything could be done. Elliot was an optimist. What he wanted for them to somehow manage was to just get him to a bed somewhere. Somewhere he could ride this out, because surely it would go away. Surely. Someone mentioned Pi’s other childe that was a doctor, and that was the last thing Elliot wanted. The very last thing. Although he couldn’t unlock his jaw, he could still sound very disgruntled. A moaned growl of disapproval that reverberated in his chest and crawled in his throat but didn’t make it further than his lips.

Of course, anyone could have interpreted the sound merely as pain, or as further progress of a sickness that Elliot had never felt before.

The air rushed in and out of Elliot’s lungs, hissing through flared nostrils. His eyes had closed and his senses were useless to him. He gave up on focus. Gave up on trying to figure out who was in the room or what they were doing to him, if anything. He grunted as he was moved, pain spasming in muscles that would not cooperate, would not uncoil. For a few brief seconds his bright eyes opened, his vision blurred by dark hair and alabaster skin, but he knew who had hold of him, now. Knew it even before he opened his eyes. He might have laughed, had he the wits to.

Pi and her ******* French.

One day he would learn it. One day, he would speak it back to her and he’d knock her ******* socks off in the process. But today was not that day. But he didn’t quite care what she was saying because he wouldn’t have been able to answer anyway. Yes, he had heard Charlie’s voice in his head, but the focus required to respond—to even try to reassure Pi in some way—was lacking. And when he did try, it felt like his head split in two, as if that magical energy was somehow fatal to him.

Maybe Doc would be useful, after all. Maybe a level-headed male might somehow diffuse all this female panic.

And in that moment of trying to communicate, his eyes rolled back into his head and his body gave up on its fight. No, he did not die. But he did pass out. Completely and fully, his body rendered him unconscious, knocking him out so that it could try to heal itself.

[CharlotteC]

"Wait...isn't one of Pi's childer a doctor, or something?"

Charlie let out a clear hiss at the mention of the 'doctor' that Aliyah had brought into the conversation. If there was one person that she didn't want around her, let alone around Elliot - to whom she was well aware that he wasn't too keen on the guy either - it was that monster. That monster that had hunted her as a fledgling, had come into her apartment as she had been trying to recoup from his first attack with his gang of 'merry' idiots who thought that genocide was the answer to everything, had played his part in stopping her from running and killing her just outside. No, absolutely not! She thought to herself as she leaned a bit more over Elliot as he made a sound that seemed as if he was feeling more pain - protecting him from a monster that was not yet here but could if someone dared to call him to the scene. "It's nice to finally meet you in the flesh as well, Aliyah." She said in a gruff tone that she had not meant to use, but the thought of that ... thing ... only served to piss her off.

As she meant to apologize for her tone, to explain... a voice filtered into her mind. A voice she had been hoping for. Pi... and she clearly had picked up on her own emotions that had been so clear in her mental voice, because she could here it in Pi's, the way she shuddered with her words, and though she didn't know french fluently, she could tell what Pi's first words had been. And it hadn't been long at all between when she had heard the voice, causing herself to let out a sigh of relief and look towards the girl before her than to Elliot. "She's on her way... Pi is on her way..." and the point where Pi was there, pulling Elliot's prone form from her arms and into her own, mumbling something in French to him.

Charlie knew of the way Pi could get around women being too close to Elliot so she stood and took a step back, watching them for a moment, giving the woman her space. When Pi looked up at them, Charlie gave a look that said that she was just as worried but that she was here for the woman as well as the man that she held in her arms. They were her family now. That meant that the girl at her side was family, and like it or not, that fuckface that Pi had sired was as well. Thankfully, she knew that like blood relatives, you liked some, you disliked others and the ones on that side of the line you could avoid.

After a moment though, she took a tentative step towards Pi, making sure that the woman saw what she was doing, that nothing she did was meant to be threatening in anyway before she knelt down before Pi and placed a gentle hand on the woman's shoulder. "I didn't want to move him till you got here, I just got him out of the public eye. Now that you are here, we should probably get him somewhere more comfortable, safer, don't you think?" She said, trying to keep her voice calm, her logic sound. Though parts of her was just too worried about Elliot and what was going on with him.

[Aliyah]

Pi's arrival onto the scene put everything into a whole different perspective. While Ali had been banking on Pi remaining calm with an idea on how to handle the situation, the exact opposite had occurred, and now they had two vampires down for the count. Though Pi remained conscious, it was clear her worry for the man in her arms was paramount and in control, leaving Charlie and herself to deal with the aftermath. A hand flew through her hair as she tried to get her thoughts in order, ignoring her own worry for the male and focusing on what happened next.

Charlie offered up a solution that seemed far enough, and with a gentle touch to Pi's arm, she spoke, "She is right, we need to get him out of here. The office is cramped and we can't do anything without having room to breathe..." How they would manage to get him out of the office without causing an uproar at the bar was a complication that could be considered after they managed to get through to Pi. With her death grip on Elliot's limp body, there was no way they were moving him, anywhere. Whether or not the Tome system worked with transporting two people was unknown to her, but the option was there. Even if it was a stupid suggestion, it was better than nothing.

And still, her mind buzzed with the information regarding Pi's childe...Doc, if she remembered the name used, correctly. It was fitting, with the male being a doctor and all. But, she had no means of contacting him, and Charlie's hiss of dissent led Ali to believe that he was not a well-liked member of the family. She knew well enough that Elliot didn't approve, he had so much as said so the first time they met. But could he really argue her logic of bringing him around, if he were able? Could he rightfully tell her that he didn't want the man's help, when he so clearly needed it?

"Pi...I think you should call Doc. We need to know what's going on, and none of us are equipped to handle this..." she finally said to the woman, ignoring the possibility of rebuttal from Charlie. The woman's feelings didn't matter, now. Elliot did. And he needed a doctor. They happened to have one on standby. Whether the family liked him, or not. "He will know what to do...we just have to get Elliot to him..."